Smoking ban in Camden Yards takes effect on Opening Day

If you’re heading to Camden Yards for today’s opener and you want to smoke during the game, you’re going to have to leave the stadium to light up.

Orioles fans will be able to smoke only in a designated area just outside of Gate E1 on the third base side of the ballpark.

On March 4, the Maryland Stadium Authority’s smoking ban went into effect at the Camden Yards sports complex, which includes Oriole Park and M&T Bank Stadium.

The new code “prohibits smoking or carrying lit tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars and pipes) within 25 feet of the stadium, ballpark and warehouse, as well as in the outdoor space along Eutaw Street between gates A and H.”

Stadium authority executive director Michael Frenz said when the ban was announced in late February that the new policy brings Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium more in line with other stadiums across the country.

“We’ve had complaints over time,” Frenz told The Sun at the time. “So as we looked into the issue, we saw that we were a little bit permissive.”

The first event where the ban was in effect was the lacrosse event Faceoff Classic on March 23.